The Tomorrow Man

by Percival Constantine

  “Yeah, but he knew about us. How could he unless he came from some point in our future?” asked Lee.

  The group continued to discuss potential theories, all save Anita who stepped away. She folded her arms and looked down at the ground. Erin came up beside her.

  “Hey, you okay? You look like you just saw a ghost.”

  Anita sighed. “Something strange happened before we fought Chronos. I was meditating, trying to see if I could learn anything more from my vision.”

  “And?”

  Anita looked at Erin with a fearful expression. “There was nothing. It’s like the vision shattered. As if there wasn’t any future.”

  Erin furrowed her brow. “You think this guy has something to do with it?”

  Anita shrugged. “I don’t know. But if he is from the future…” She moved back to the group with Erin by her side. “Guys, listen.”

  Anita repeated to them what she just told Erin and the group listened intently. Once she finished her story, silence fell over the entire team.

  “We have to figure out what’s going on here,” said Thorne. “Chronos wanted to get in here, which means he had something he was after. We have to figure out what that is.”

  “And there’s one way to do that,” said Anita. “I have to try and scan his mind.”

  “You sure about that?” asked Jim. “These abilities of yours, they’re still kind of new.”

  “He’s right, this could be quite dangerous, Anita,” said Zenith.

  “Yeah, but we gotta try something,” said Dom.

  “Could try interrogating him,” said Koji.

  “And if he’s not willing to answer?” asked Anita. “He didn’t seem in a sharing mood when he spoke to Zenith.”

  “Right, but he knows me. Maybe I’m his friend in the future or something,” said Koji. “Might be worth a shot.”

  “Or maybe he knows you by reputation alone,” said Dom.

  “There are reasons for and against doing this, but ultimately there’s only one person who can decide.” Thorne looked up at Anita. “It’s your call. If you think you can do this, we’ll follow your lead. But if you’re not sure, we can find another way.”

  Anita nodded. “I’m sure.”

  “We’ll monitor you from here,” said Jim. “If anything goes wrong, we’ll back you up.”

  “Thanks, but I think I’ll be okay,” said Anita, looking down at the armor. “After all, he’s human, right? Without that armor, there’s not a whole lot he can really to do me.”

  CHAPTER 6

  The doors to the training room opened and Anita stepped inside. Robots developed by Zenith and used for Vanguard’s training purposes flanked either side of the door. Several other robots lined the walls, all of them ready to fire teleforce blasts if Chronos made the slightest move.

  Anita walked through the wide, circular room towards Chronos. He sat in the middle on a small cot left for him, having woken up since being defeated by Wraith. Anita leaned against the wall and looked at him.

  He was young, maybe around the same age as Lee and Koji and had a bald head. He looked up at Anita, staring into her brown eyes with his green ones. Anita concentrated, trying to slide into his mind.

  “You don’t want to do that,” he said.

  “And why not?”

  “Because you won’t like what you see.”

  Anita stopped trying to use her powers. “Fine, then why don’t you tell me what I want to know?”

  Chronos sighed, resting his hands on his knees. “This isn’t what was supposed to happen.”

  “You’re from the future, aren’t you?”

  He gave a nod. “But not this future.”

  Anita furrowed her brow. “What does that mean?”

  “In my time, there aren’t any people like you,” said Chronos. “Specials? They don’t exist.”

  “So what happened to them?”

  He shook his head. “No, you don’t get it. Specials never existed.”

  Anita blinked, not sure what to make of that statement. She wasn’t sure where she should begin to question him. “Okay, why don’t you just tell me your story? We’ll start from there. Where are you from? Or…I guess when.”

  “The twenty-fifth century,” said Chronos. “In about sixty years, the Kotharians invade Earth. The battle is swift and they completely decimate humanity’s forces.”

  “And in your time?”

  “Humans are still alive, used as slave labor for the Kotharians, mining what resources are left in the planet for their purposes. Some are used for experimentation. But there’s a resistance. I was liberated from one of the labor camps by resistance fighters and I joined their cause. We found out that the Kotharians had a two pieces of technology—one was what they called a chronal emitter. The other was something called the Chaknaar.”

  “We encountered a Kotharian. She said the Chaknaar is what drew her here.”

  Chronos’ head shot up. “So you know where she is?”

  “She’s restrained, that’s all you need to know.”

  “No, there’s more!” Chronos rose from the cot and the robots reacted to his movement, raising their arms and prepared to fire.

  Anita held up her hands to calm the sentries and they relaxed their arms. “Then tell me what else I need to know.”

  Chronos sat back down and gripped his head. “It’s hard…”

  “Hard to explain? Try me.”

  “No, it’s hard to—to remember.”

  Anita took a few steps closer. “Then let me help you.”

  Chronos was cautious as she raised her gloved hands to his head. At first he pulled away, but then relaxed. Anita sat beside him on the cot and they both turned so they were facing each other, folding their legs under their bodies. She laid gentle fingers on his scalp and lowered her head, shutting her eyes.

  She went inside his mind, reading his memories. And she could see why Chronos said he had trouble remembering. His memories were scattered. She saw competing versions of the same day, the same year. Three different ones in fact. There were some memories that just abruptly ended, as if they hadn’t finished yet.

  Anita tried to focus on the things he told her of the twenty-fifth century. On the Kotharians and the labor camps. And that she could see. She saw a young Chronos being put to work from the moment he was able to walk. He had no name, just a number. Like all the humans did.

  She saw the resistance. Felt his fear when the explosions blew through the camp walls. She ran as him, finding cover and holding her head low, covering her ears to block out the sound of gunfire.

  When it stopped, she felt something stand over her. She ducked down lower, fearful for her young life. But she heard a soft, soothing voice and when she looked up, she saw a man with a sleek, silver body holding out a hand. She was taken into the resistance. Trained as one of them.

  And then the memories became murky. She put on the armor and engaged the chronal emitter with the silver man at her side. They were drawn into a portal and arrived on the moon. She watched the silver man rise above the moon and release the Chaknaar stores into the atmosphere.

  From there, it became even harder to see. Like she was staring through a fog. She could see the ruins of Times Square. The advancing warriors. And her rescuers, two specials.

  The flood of memories petered out and Anita stood from the cot, backing away from Chronos. She stumbled and almost fell, but one of the robots came to her aid. It steadied her and Anita leaned on it for support as she looked into Chronos’ eyes.

  “What was that?” she asked.

  “The future. Two of them, in fact.” Chronos sighed and folded his arms. “Now you see the problem. Whenever I make a jump back in time, after a while the old memories start to fade and new ones start to appear in their place. But the old ones remain, like an echo. It gets to the point where I don’t know which memories I can trust.”

  Anita was now able to stand under her own power and let go of the robot. “Then how do you know what
your mission really is? Are you even remembering it right?”

  “I just have to go on faith that I’m on the right path. It’s almost like I’m acting on instinct.”

  “And the Kotharians?”

  “They’re coming. One way or another. Unless I can stop them.”

  “How will you stop them?”

  Chronos stared hard at her. “I have to kill someone.”

  CHAPTER 7

  “Chronos created us,” said Anita to the gathered team in the workshop. “As crazy as it may sound, it’s true. In his past, the Kotharians invaded the Earth sixty years from now and enslaved humanity. With the help of resistance fighters, Chronos took the Kotharian Chaknaar and came back in time. The plan was to release it into Earth’s atmosphere so that by the time the Kotharians arrived, humanity would have gotten some experience using their new powers and be able to mount a defense.”

  “That means your vision was right,” said Erin. “J’Karra’s people are going to invade.”

  “Right, but it’s not as simple as that,” said Anita. “After releasing the Chaknaar, Chronos and his ally jumped ahead twenty years. And what they saw was that the Earth had already been invaded. Chronos’ plan had a flaw no one in his time knew about—the Kotharians could sense the Chaknaar, even on the other side of the universe. That release drew J’Karra here and accelerated the invasion.”

  “Then he comes back again, tries to find a way to repel the invasion,” said Thorne. “But why this point in time? Why not stop himself from releasing the Chaknaar? Or why not stop J’Karra from ever landing on Earth?”

  Anita shook her head. “There’s a lot of things that I’m not very clear on. All I really know is those basic broad strokes and it took some work to piece them together. Chronos said that every time he jumps into the past, his memories eventually change as well.”

  “How does that work?” asked Koji.

  “There is much we do not know about time,” said Zenith. “But if what Chronos is saying is true, then that means when an individual changes the past, for a period they exist outside of time. If they immediately return to their own era, perhaps the memory change would happen instantaneously. But Chronos has continued jumping forward and back in time, presumably not even returning to his own era. Still, the memories eventually catch up with him.”

  “So he’s got multiple sets of memories,” said Lee. “Must cause him some headaches.”

  “They might appear more like dreams. But as with dreams, some will be clear, others will be difficult to recall. And in time, they could fade,” said Zenith.

  “Or even worse, mix together,” said Anita. “And I think that’s happening. The memories he actually experienced, those are pretty clear. His time in the camps, being liberated by the resistance, coming back in time. But the other stuff, like the history of the original timeline and the history of the changed timeline, those are less clear.”

  “That could potentially put his sanity at risk the more he travels through time,” said Zenith.

  “Did you figure out why he came here?” asked Jim.

  “He said he needs to kill someone to stop the invasion. And I don’t think it’s too much of a stretch to figure out who he means.”

  “J’Karra,” said Dom. “So why don’t we give him back his suit and let him at her?”

  “Because he’s going to kill her,” said Anita.

  Dom shrugged. “And? Listen, I don’t know if you’ve been paying attention or not, but we’re talking about an alien invasion. I know killing isn’t something we do a whole lot of, but don’t you think we should make an exception in this case?” He gestured to Jim and Thorne. “Back me up here, guys.”

  “He’s got a point,” said Jim. “If killing J’Karra means we can prevent this invasion, then I say we do it.”

  “We don’t even know if it would work,” said Anita.

  “Clearly, we do,” said Dom. “You saw his memories, didn’t you? What did the future look like? Was it one where aliens hadn’t enslaved mankind?”

  “Yes, but I also saw a time period when specials didn’t exist and the invasion still happened, albeit much later,” said Anita.

  “So what, it’s inevitable? It’s our destiny to be enslaved?” asked Koji.

  “I don’t believe in fate,” said Thorne. “But I also don’t know if we can trust Chronos’ memories. He attacked us, he’s got technology centuries more advanced than anything we have.”

  “More than that. You’re talking about futuristic Kotharian tech,” said Lee. “This is like, thousands of years beyond what we have access to.”

  “Right, and who knows what else he could be hiding,” said Thorne.

  “So we’re just gonna let J’Karra summon an alien invasion?” Dom scoffed and glared at Anita. “Why are you trying to protect her anyway? She got you under some kind of mind control spell?”

  “Excuse me?”

  “Not the first time someone manipulated your mind.”

  Anita clenched her hands and stepped closer to Dom. Erin saw what was happening and she stretched her arms to hold the two of them back.

  “Let’s all calm down for a second,” she said.

  “Vaughn, go cool off,” said Thorne.

  “What? But—”

  “I said get out, don’t make me repeat myself.”

  Dom scoffed but vanished in a portal. Thorne stood over the table and looked down at the armor. “It’s getting late. Everyone should get some rest, we’ll have another look at this in the morning.”

  “You sure that’s the best course of action?” asked Jim. “Given everything we’ve learned tonight—”

  “Just go.”

  Jim sighed but nodded. One by one, Vanguard filed from the workshop but Thorne tossed Anita a look and said, “Just a minute.”

  Anita stopped, exchanging some quick glances with her teammates as they left. Once they were gone and the doors closed, Thorne turned to face her.

  “Vaughn’s not known for his tact. His accusation was out of line.”

  “Thank you. It means a lot—”

  “But his concern was a legitimate one,” said Thorne. “J’Karra’s definitely been a major influence on you, you’ve spent a lot of time with her, and after Chronos’ story, it makes me more than a little nervous.”

  “You don’t have to worry about me,” said Anita. “I’m not under anyone’s control.”

  “How can I believe that?”

  “The same way you believed me when I told you about the Khagan during our first encounter. You were the only one that had faith in me. I’m asking for you to show me that same faith again.”

  “You misunderstand, Anita. It’s not that I don’t trust you, it’s that I don’t trust J’Karra.”

  “But you trust Chronos? A man whose very sanity is in question?”

  Thorne sighed. “No, I don’t trust him, either. But I can’t deny what Zenith and Lee have turned up in their investigation. I can’t deny the alien warrior being held by Cerberus.”

  CHAPTER 8

  Normally, one might find it difficult to sleep while armed sentries stood watch over you. But that was exactly how Chronos grew up, so for him it felt normal. And the cot was far more comfortable than the bedding he slept on as a child. While he slumbered, his mind was awash in half-forgotten memories and dreams.

  But a single voice cut through the white noise. Again, it was the voice of the old man with the glowing eyes. In his mind, Chronos could see the man, encased in the mobile life-support equipment.

  “If this message has been triggered, then you have accomplished the first part of your mission and gained entrance into Atlas. Now it’s time for you to move on to the second part.”

  Chronos’ memory of this event came into clear view. And he remembered the man’s name—the Analyst. He remembered standing in the Icarus in the future, speaking alone with the Analyst after the rest of the team had left them.

  “Remember…"

  ***

  “There is
more to this mission than even the rest of the team can know,” said the Analyst.

  “What are you talking about? The plan is your guys help me repair the chronal emitter and then I travel back in time and kill this J’Karra. What’s not to understand?”

  The Analyst closed his eyes. Through cybernetic control via his life-support equipment, he had full command of the Icarus’ facilities. A holographic projection of a man in Gunsmith armor appeared before them. Chronos reacted instinctively, his gauntlet releasing his baton into his hand.

  “It’s okay,” said the Analyst. “General Ellis is a friend. Our contact inside the Kotharian’s human conspirators.”

  “I’ll be able to lower the defense shield when your team approaches,” said Ellis. “You’ll face resistance from Gunsmiths, but the Kotharian scouts will be off investigating a disturbance at one of the camps, which I’ve also arranged. You should have a straight shot into the tachyon testing chamber.”

  “And from there, you can repair your equipment and then travel to the past,” said the Analyst.

  “So why didn’t you want the rest of the team to know this?” asked Chronos.

  “Oh, that part we do,” said the Analyst. “It’s what you have to do in the past that they cannot know of. Particularly Shift.”

  “Twenty years ago, the invasion was made possible by the betrayal of one of our own,” said Ellis. “J’Karra turned a Vanguardian against the rest of us and that enabled the Kotharians to invade. So you’ll have two targets when you arrive in the past—one is J’Karra and once you arrive in the past, you can find her location from the Atlas database.”

  “I will implant access codes and instructions into your subconscious,” said the Analyst.

  “But before you leave Atlas, there’s another target,” said Ellis. “Vanguard will of course try to stop you—do whatever you have to in order to complete the mission and escape, but don’t harm anyone other than the target.”

  “I still don’t see why you don’t want Shift to know about this,” said Chronos. “She knows your teammate betrayed you, right? So why wouldn’t she be all for this?”